Sweet Pea was outside looking in; Tater Tot was inside looking out. He was chirping like a bird at one point but I didn't get any of that on video except for one small peep which you might not even be able to hear.

And I wasn't even sure this was Sweet Pea because he fur was standing up a bit and he looked like a larger cat. Tater Tot is always infatuated with him.

This has been one HELL of a workweek. It's the weekend and the last day of October, and Halloween. And November arrives at 12:00 tonight. Thank God!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

I don't know where to start... or end. Between politics, the economy and all its permutations, and my current job situation, I've got my panties in a knot. And while the political situation is about to take a breather in five days, that still leaves two out of three which concern me.

But seriously, why does John McCain want to be president? And why does Cindy fancy herself as first lady? It just don't look right. After the election, they can just retire to one of their seveneight whatever number of many houses they have.

So I vacate and allow The Visitors to intrude. In the absence of a vacation, just vacating is good.

I could see this coming a month ago. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security by the current lower oil prices which are about 50% of the July levels.

Michael Stravato for The New York Times

If I were to place a bet, I'd go with this being a temporary phenomenon. And as demand increases again, the price will surely follow.

But with gasoline prices falling drastically in recent weeks, some American drivers are returning to their old ways.

[...]

“Driving habits die hard, and they can reincarnate quickly,” said Christopher R. Knittel, an economist at the University of California, Davis, who studies gasoline demand.

Yeah, the next thing you know we'll be seeing a spike in Hummer sales again. And these are the same people who will be moaning again when a barrel of crude surpasses $100. They are the ones who will be screaming at our leaders to "do something!"

Here's one idea. Stop pumping so much.

My other biggest concern is that if prices remain low through the winter and into the spring, we'll lose all the momentum for shifting to greener energy and improved efficiency. Status quo, baby, status quo. Not good.

Monday, October 27, 2008

California has always been a rather queer state. And I can't help but see irony in two ballot measures on November 4th in which is it conceivable that chickens will be awarded rights while gays & lesbians could easily have one stripped away, if the bullshit artists and their legions of brainwashed can whip up enough fear.

“This vote on whether we stop the gay-marriage juggernaut in California is Armageddon,” said Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries and an eminent evangelical voice, speaking to pastors in a video promoting Proposition 8. “We lose this, we are going to lose in a lot of other ways, including freedom of religion.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobby based in Washington, said in an interview, “It’s more important than the presidential election.”

“We’ve picked bad presidents before, and we’ve survived as a nation,” said Mr. Perkins, who has made two trips to California in the last six weeks. “But we will not survive if we lose the institution of marriage.”

I can't help but wonder why we haven't already had Armageddon after Massachusetts has recognized gay marriage since May 17, 2004, and California since May 15, 2008, and in Connecticut since October 10, 2008, although the Connecticut recognition hasn't fully taken effect.

No, Chicken Little, the sky has not fallen, nor has "traditional" marriage suffered any blow not already dealt to it by the very people fighting for Proposition 8, and their own marriage woes, divorces, and infidelities.

One week from tomorrow we'll get a sense of the real California, and perhaps a big dose of irony.

I'm such a Southern boy. This warms the cockles of my heart. txrad had planted collards from seed and last week he thinned them out a bit. I'm hoping I can cook up a batch during Thanksgiving weekend but they've got a LOT of growing to do. That's less than 5 weeks away, if you can believe that.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

While waiting on our lunch order at Flores today I kept noticing a guy whose profile bore a stunning resemblance to Kyle MacLachlan from about 20 years ago. Instead of just letting it go at that, my mind then wanders into this film. And lingers... and lingers.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

txrad went out this afternoon and harvested this for our beans tonight. Cute!

On a related note (sortof), my brother sent me a bunch of pictures today of some celebration. Maybe it's those crazy Japanese having what my brother called a "Cock Celebration." (In the event that Photobucket removes these photos as they did the last time I used the site to store them, I'll replace them in the morning.)

If anyone has any info on this festival, drop a link in comments. I don't normally like parades or anything of the sort, but I might be willing to travel around the globe for this event.

A penis so huge, it takes 20 men to carry it.

Cock to go, with a special dipping sauce?

Do these glasses make my nose look limp?

Teach 'em young in the ways of the world.

Good grief. Maybe this is a festival to raise ... um... awareness.... and combat a declining birth rate.

So we started with a chili pepper and we moved on to penises. I'll leave you with Red Hot Chili Peppers and penises.

After a spirited, emotional and at times raucous debate, the New York City Council voted, 29 to 22, on Thursday afternoon to extend term limits, allowing Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to seek re-election next year and undoing the result of two voter referendums that had imposed a limit of two four-year terms.

Bloomberg isn't normally very high on my radar, and I have no strong opinions about him either way, with the exception of the man's ego who argues that he is the one who must lead the city through the upcoming economic turmoil as if no one else is capable. It's the old we're at war so we must have a leadership continuum routine. You may recall that mindset from the 2004 presidential election.

What I call an ego, Councilman John C. Liu of Queens calls "arrogance."

Monday, October 20, 2008

Like we aren't dealing with enough stress and turmoil already, the idiots are coming out en masse as if Barack Obama stuck his devil's pitchfork in a racist ant-hill.

Hays County, where that vandalism occurred, is just a few miles from my house.

A friend on mine in Dallas had a window shot out of her house awhile back. I'm sure the Obama for President sign in her yard had something to do with it. Some Obama signs are just being set on fire which is preferable to having a bullet entering your home... unless your area is extremely dry.

I would like to say my country is making me feel dirty right now, but Sarah Palin would cast me as un-American for saying it.

What a sad moment in our nation when scum of the earth resort to violence and intimidation to control the outcome of the most important election in my lifetime. And how ridiculous that I, and countless others I'm sure, are afraid to show our support for the man who will be leading this nation in 2009, barring some unlikely faux pas on Obama's part, or worse.

But I will put here on this blog what I will not affix to my car or display in front of my house because, quite honestly, I like my new windows and I've spent enough on car repairs this year.

Here's how elections work in America. We get to individually choose who we feel is best able to lead the nation. It's called a basic right. You may not agree with my choice, and I may think you are a whackjob for supporting someone else. And that's where the disagreement needs to stop.

The idea that grown adults are resorting to tactics ranging from the theft of signs to extreme acts of violence based on their ignorance and insane fear is mind-boggling.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Did your high school class take a senior trip and if so, where did you go and what was the freakiest thing that happened?

I don't know why I had a sudden flashback to this while eating lunch yesterday. There were at least a dozen of us piled into several vehicles for the very long drive from southeast Arkansas to Orlando. I'm not even sure why I went except that it was a chance to get away and maybe have some fun.

There's actually very little I do remember about the trip. I honestly can't even remember if we went to Disney World. I remember riding down there with a guy named Bobby in his Trans Am. I remember drinking quite a bit. I remember having a Tequila Sunrise.

At the time I was very self-conscious about my appearance and didn't think wearing glasses was cool. The glasses I had were definitely NOT cool, so I was wearing contacts.

Any younger readers here may not know this, but back in those days (1978) contact lenses were made of the same shit as aircraft windshields. They were hard and they were not comfortable. They would sometimes pop out if you blinked, and they dried out very easily.

After a night of drinking and partying well into the wee hours of the morning, I could not wait to pop those things out and rinse them with tap water just for some lubrication. I wasn't at the hotel so I had to pursue the only available option. There was so much crusty yellow stuff around my dry, bloodshot eyes, I had trouble even getting them out, like they were glued in there. And I swear I think there was even a trace of blood in my tears. One of my friends took one look at me and said something like, "Dude, did you drink too much because you look seriously fucked up."

But this wasn't even the freakiest thing that happened.

We were sharing rooms to cut expenses. Two beds in the room, two guys per bed. Now before all your minds start roaming, let me cut you off right here: nothing happened between us. I found the guys in my class to be such a turn-off sexually I didn't even want to sleep in a room with them, let alone in the same bed with one of them.

Now, early one morning I was trying to get some sleep and the other three guys were yacking about something, other people were banging on the door, some coming in, some leaving, girls and boys alike. It was a little awkward for me because what if I needed to get up? I was just in my underwear. So were the other guys who were up but it didn't seem to bother them.

As I lay there with my eyes closed I felt the bed rumble as someone got in it. Then I heard a rather husky girl's voice, trying to get me awake. I pretended to be too groggy to open my eyes even though I had been fully conscious for at least 20 minutes.

At this point I felt a hand pulling my underwear down to my knees, and that got me on the move! It was Charlene, one of my classmates. I pulled my shorts back up and bolted out of bed in a flash, grabbing a shirt and my jeans as I ran to the bathroom.

It's kind of funny how much more you learn about people when you spend some time with them (not to mention alcohol consumption) far away from parents and school. And I wonder how many suspicions about me being gay were confirmed right then and there.

Although I find it hard to believe, I'm sure there are still a few people out there who feel a Sarah Palin vice presidency (or presidency) would be a triumphant moment for women and the feminist movement. Surely those numbers are dwindling as rapidly as my 401k value.

It was obvious McCain selected her as his running mate in order to appeal to women. As with so many other McCain strategies, what we see happening is the polar opposite. Sarah Palin has achieved cult status among the real he-men. The ones who ooze testosterone.

Photo credit: Michael Conroy/Associated Press

It is not unusual for fans of Sarah Palin to shout out to the Alaska governor in the midst of her stump speeches. It is noteworthy, however, that the crowds are heavily male.

[...]

At the height of Palinmania, soon after she made her national debut in September, Ms. Palin’s popularity among men was striking. Her favorability ratings were higher among men than women (44 percent to 36 percent), according to a New York Times poll, even though she was chosen in part because of her expected appeal to women.

I will now bombard you with excerpts from the rallies as reported in today's New York Times.

“Katie Couric and Tina Fey are going to do their thing, but it doesn’t bother me at all,” said Rob McLain, an insurance agent from Avon, Ind., who attended a packed Palin rally at an amphitheatre in Indiana on Friday night. Mr. McLain wore a “Proud to be voting for a hot chick” button and was joined by his wife, Shannan (“Read my lipstick” button on lapel), and his 6-week-old son, Jaxon (“Nobama” button on beanie).

[...]

“This is not a ladies campaign,” declared Linda Teegan at a rally in Weirs Beach, N.H., on Wednesday. She was taking a crowd snapshot. “There seem to be lots and lots of guys here,” she said. “I’d guess 70-30, maybe 65-35, men to women. It’s quite noticeable to me.”

[...]

“You tell ’em baby,” a man yelled out at a rally Wednesday night on a high school football field in Salem, N.H.

[...]

Her recent events drew scruffy high-schoolers in backward baseball caps, tank-topped bikers in bandanas and long-bearded veterans in berets. They crashed the rope line for photos and autographs. “Marry me, Sarah,” a man implored in Weirs Beach, N.H.

[...]

“She’s beautiful,” said a man wearing a John Deere T-shirt in Weirs Beach. “I came here to look at her,” he said, and his admiration for Ms. Palin’s appearance became more and more animated. Sheepish over his ogling, he declined to give his real name (“Just call me ‘John Deere’ ”).

[...]

“They bear us children, they risk their lives to give us birth, so maybe it’s time we let a woman lead us,” said Larry Hawkins, a former truck driver attending a rally late Thursday at Elon University in North Carolina. Mr. Hawkins said he would rather vote for Ms. Palin than for “McCain and Obama combined.”

Men have done plenty to mess up the country, he said. “The sexual drives and big egos of male leaders have gotten in the way of politics in this country.” Mr. Hawkins said he talked to fellow truckers, and a lot of them feel the same way. “They think it’s time for a woman, too,” he said. “This one. Palin is our kind of woman.”

Right. So here we have a bunch of men with strong sex drives and a sordid fetish for a woman offering up more of the same tired crap, saying she's just what we need to fix the mistakes of male leaders.

It was not so long ago when these same people were highly critical of Obama's cult following and celebrity status.

“You guys are great,” [Palin] said while signing autographs.

Yeah, you tell 'em, baby.

By the way, these politicians work for us. They are not here to entertain us. Signing autographs while interviewing for a job is not professional. That applies to all the candidates. It is infuriating.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

2. Joe Lieberman standing next to McCain at a rally, or pretending he's an independent who supports McCain.

3. John McCain (or anyone else) calling Barack Obama or his policies socialist. It's been so long since this country has seen a real socialist in politics some of us have apparently lost touch. They are out there, but they won't be invited to any major televised debates with The Big Two. If Obama is a socialist, what would that have made Dennis Kucinich as a presidential nominee? Honestly, how far left can you go if Obama is a socialist? We'd have to start inventing new words for them.

4. Sarah Palin. She scores on both points. Not only would I like to see and hear less of her, I'd like to not see or hear her at all. She can just return from whence she came.

5. Barack Obama being called the "anti-Christ." Come on, people! Can you be the anti-Christ and a Socialist? It's not just coming from Mississippi, but Nebraska as well, and 48 other states, and it's just stupid.

In Bellevue, Neb., Jessie Puglisi, 22, said, “Obama is the anti-Christ,” adding: “My husband feels the same way. He won’t even buy a magazine if Obama’s face is on it.”

Yeah, it's kinda hard to learn about someone if you refuse to read anything about them that didn't come via an email smear campaign.

Maybe they are just alarmed by the fact that Obama draws huge crowds of people who are desperate for some kind of change.

Those on the far right fringe must be riveted with fear and I'm eager for all of them to have at least four years of living with it. It's called payback for the rest of us watching in horror as George W. Bush worked his own special magic on the nation.

6. Women in politics who do nothing but echo what we've been hearing from men in politics for 200 years. I've long argued that as a nation, we aren't going to progress until women are in power. While I'm happy to see the representation of women in politics increasing around the world, it doesn't give me much hope when some of them are nothing more than a clone of so many babbling idiot men I have wanted to hastily discharge from their service to our nation. What disturbs me even more is when these people like Michele Bachmann get elected from "liberal" states such as Minnesota, and begin spewing their insanity like any old ignorant rifle-totin' redneck from the backwoods of Alabama driving a beat up pickup plastered with "NObama" and "God Bless America" stickers, all manufactured in China.

Less of all this, please. I've seen enough and heard enough during this election cycle to cover me for several decades, and we've got a bit more than two weeks to go.

“Two homosexuals that were holding up my picture this week at the Capitol and shouting that I want to hate people, I walked up to them and said: “I don’t hate you. I love you and the Savior who created you. He loves you, too, can I tell you why? This is not about hating them, this is about loving them into the Kingdom.”

Good grief. It's not enough that we have to listen to her blathering in this life, and for some she actually represents them in Congress, but the idea of having to spend an eternal afterlife in the "Kingdom" with the likes of her?

What is it about cats and their enjoyment of being elevated? Sissy has her favorite Ikea chair in the bedroom. She is the only one who uses it. I won't sit on it due to the presence of cat hair.

Tiger really annoys me. We have 5 places to sit on the patio. If it is raining, he sits on the one chair which is covered and protected from the rain. So if I want to go out and enjoy the rain, I have to stand.

When it's dry, he picks the only chair of the lot which is comfortable for humans. So if I want to enjoy the autumn weather (and it's definitely autumn weather right now), I have to pick one of the less-desirable chairs.

Tater Tot isn't keen on chairs. He will only get on the sofa if I'm sitting on it and only then to stand or sit in my lap. His choice for restful slumber is txrad's bed. He looks a bit grumpy here because I woke him up.

TGIF! What a week! But I've actually had a really quiet day at work and managed to finally get another installment up at Black Soap -- the first once since September 22.

I despise eating contests. Frankly, I'd be ashamed to participate in one when so many people are going hungry. And I'm not talking about Ethiopia. I wonder how many homeless and hungry people this guy may have passed on his way to Denny's Beer Barrel Pub where he consumed a burger weighing in at 20 pounds.

When asked what possessed him to eat a burger that big, Sciullo said: "I wanted to see if I could."

[...]

For completing the challenge in the under-five-hour time limit, Sciullo won $400, three T-shirts, a certificate "and a burger hangover, as I call it," Liegey said.

After he finishes what might be a world-record bowel movement, he should donate that $400 to a local food bank.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Why isn't David Chapman dead? Not that I'm in favor of the death penalty for anyone, but let's get real. We have no problems with killing the criminally insaneblack folks who kill (possibly) an unknown cop.

The case has led to an outpouring of support for Mr. Davis, largely because seven of nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony, with two claiming that the police had pressured them to testify against him. Prosecutors presented no physical evidence and no murder weapon, and three witnesses have said another man admitted to the murder.

World leaders including former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Pope Benedict XVI have challenged the fairness of Mr. Davis’s conviction.

Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas) is the man who murdered English musician and activist John Lennon on December 8, 1980 in New York City. Chapman shot Lennon four times outside The Dakota apartment building, in the presence of Lennon's wife Yoko Ono and others. Chapman remained at the scene until arrested by police.

A scheduled jury trial did not go ahead because Chapman changed his plea from not guilty by reason of insanity to guilty of second degree murder, against the advice of his lawyer. He had been assessed as delusional and possibly psychotic, and the defense team argued that Chapman was not competent to make the decision. However, Chapman was sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life and remains incarcerated at Attica State Prison in New York, having been denied parole five times. His applications for parole have been opposed by Yoko Ono, as well as by an online grassroots public campaign.

More than 200,000 registered Ohio voters may be blocked from casting regular ballots on Election Day because of a federal appeals court decision on Tuesday requiring the disclosure of lists of voters whose names did not match those on government databases, state election officials and voting experts said.

The court decision requires Jennifer Brunner, the Ohio secretary of state, to provide the names to local election officials by Friday. Once the local officials have the names, they may require these voters to cast provisional ballots rather than regular ones, and they may ask partisan poll workers to challenge these voters on Election Day. Both possibilities could cause widespread problems when the voters show up at the polls.

This crap always takes place in a crucial swing state where poll numbers are usually tight.

Social Security data indicate that Ohio election officials found more than 200,000 names that did not match this year; state election officials say their analysis of the data indicates that most of these are individual voters, not duplicate registrations. But Ms. Brunner said that problems with the databases could very well be why the names did not match.

“Federal government red tape, misstated technical information or glitches in databases should not be the basis for voters having to cast provisional ballots,” said Ms. Brunner, adding that she plans to require that notifications are sent to all voters whose records have discrepancies.

The Ohio Republican chairman, Robert T. Bennett, called the court ruling “a victory for the integrity of Ohio’s election.”

Of course he would call it a "victory" because even 10% of those 200,000 voters having their ballots discarded would probably swing the state into the McCain/Palin column.

Weather Underground is the current working title for the fifth studio album from UK band Massive Attack. Artists currently believed to be contributing to the vocals for the album include Stephanie Dosen, Tunde Adebimpe, Hope Sandoval, Tom Waits, Dot Allison, Horace Andy, Mike Patton, Liz Fraser, Jhelisa Anderson, Damon Albarn, Patti Smith and Mos Def.

There is a movement in the works and I strongly support it. With all my might.

My mother spent the weekend with relatives in northeast Mississippi, many of whom are in their 80s like her, and some of them informed her that the anti-Christ has arrived.

He even has a website. No decent anti-Christ would be without one of those. And yes, naturally, the anti-Christ would be a black man.

Sigh. I guess if those coloreds had just kept drinking the designated colored water instead of pushing for equality, we would not now be fearing for our very existence. The anti-Christ is out to kill us all and destroy civilization.

(Does anyone need to ask why I haven't been to visit relatives in Mississippi in over 20 years?)

The winds were so strong that Freeman said embers were being blown as far as a quarter of a mile, and flames stretched up to 80 feet. Flames longer than 8 feet are considered virtually insurmountable, and Los Angeles County prohibits hand crews from approaching flames longer than 4 feet, according to Drew Smith, a county fire behaviorist.

Monday, October 13, 2008

“ ‘Embrace Hinduism, and your house will not be demolished,’ ” Mr. Digal recalled being told on that Wednesday afternoon in September. “ ‘Otherwise, you will be killed, or you will be thrown out of the village.’ ”

txrad and I were discussing this tonight and we don't think Rodney King was such a crazy niggah.

"My screen is completely green, and I love that," said John Lynch, chief market analyst for Evergreen Investments in Charlotte, N.C. "But I'm not doing any backflips yet. We still have many challenges up ahead."

Exactly. In the meantime, I'm just waiting on the profit-taking sell-off which should happen before the end of the week. Once the euphoria subsides.

Not all the news was good today. Another 1,340 GM workers will be shown the door.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The seemingly benign decision to stick a Liberal Party lawn sign in her front yard has brought a new ritual to Marla Waltman Daschko’s morning routine. Ms. Waltman Daschko walks around her Volkswagen Passat station wagon and peers underneath the chassis, searching for potentially deadly sabotage.

She's not paranoid.

Last weekend, more than 30 Toronto residents awoke to find the brake lines on their cars severed, their telephone and cable television lines cut and political graffiti gouged into automobile paint and scrawled on their homes. The sole link among victims: a lawn sign promoting a Liberal candidate in the current federal election campaign.

Oh Canada. Don't mimic the US, please. Where else will we go when the shit hits the fan?

After talking about this for months I finally went out yesterday and bought paint for the master bath. And yesterday afternoon around 3:00 I got off my lazy butt and starting painting. I quit and 7:00 and resumed again this morning with some touch ups and painting the trim.

And I have a confession. As much as I love painting walls, I absolutely despise painting all that wood trim around the floor and around doors. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I gotta tell ya. Painting behind a toilet is fun! I sure wasn't going to pull that out.

And of course while I was walking around with the bucket of paint used for the trim, it would be inevitable that I'd find an unfinished door facing from last year's painting projects.

But there are few greater pleasures than finishing up a project and being pleased with the results!

I'm getting a little more than fed up with scenarios in which national presidential elections affecting all 50 states with 300 million people being decided by one state.

The campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain are taking a no-holds-barred approach to the midwestern "Show Me" state, and with good reason; Missourians have voted for the presidential winner in all but one election since 1904.

[...]

The candidates have blitzed the state with political ads, with Obama reportedly spending six million dollars on media advertising and McCain close on his heels with 5.5 million.

Missouri's vote is on a knife edge, and recent major polls have toggled back and forth; Thursday's average of recent polls by independent website Realclearpolitics.com shows McCain at 47.8 percent and Obama at 47.4 in Missouri. The previous day it was Obama 47.8, McCain 47.5.

For fuck's sake, make up your damn minds! Enough already. Time to dump that electoral college, once and for all. 2000 taught us that lesson.

This last week's edition of the Austin Chronicle has been sitting on the coffee table for a week and I just tonight noticed the cover which made me laugh.

It didn't make me sick because I recognized it as humor. I don't consider it violence or cruelty to animals because it's obviously not a real viewpoint held by the publication or the artists, nor was a real loaded gun held to the head of a kitten.

Try telling that to some of the readers (or ex-readers) of the Chronicle. As I picked up this copy to put it in the recycling I noticed txrad had brought home this week's edition which came out today. I said, "Oh I'll bet there's going to be some nasty letters in there about last week's cover."

Here's one:

I am very disappointed -- no, that's the wrong word; I am very sickened to see your cover this week portraying a kitten about to be shot. Don't you know how many animals are tortured and abused in this world? Your cover is a disgrace. I don't need the threat of animal cruelty to get me to vote. I am not a PETA activist; I am not a Republican; I am not a Democrat. I am just a regular, responsible person living in Austin for the past 12 years and a person who used to read your paper.

--Tracy Lee

I'll bet Tracy picked up a copy of this week's Chronicle to see if that letter was printed. And being pleased with being the first one, will continue reading. As if it matters.

Timothy Verret had also had an opinion. I'll just give you an excerpt.

It's shameful that we, as a society, have to resort to violence to get a point across.

Yes, it is indeed shameful. But this was not violence. It was a "portrayal" as Tracy pointed out, completely unreal and fictitious.

I'll be glad when we, as a society, can make a distinction between humor and reality. I'm happy to report that all the other letters to the editor this week related to important issues facing all of us.

It's quite simple. If McCain/Palin win the election (looking very doubtful) we are the kitten, and in this scenario the gun is real. If you could have registered to vote and didn't because you were too busy or too lazy, then you bear a portion of the guilt for the kitteh gettin' it. And ditto if you bothered to register and can't drag your lazy ass to the polls in November.

And even if Obama/Biden win the election, there's still a kitty and a gun in close proximity. Think economy. Or Afghanistan. Pakistan. American Muslims. Thailand. Racism. Darfur. Iran. Gay marriage or gay equality. Taiwan. Sexism. North and South Korea. Georgia. Discrimination against the transgendered. Kosova. (Shall I go on?)

The money is literally created from thin air by authorization and subsequently lent to institutions, individuals, foreign governments and others for what basically boils down to the mother of all IOUs.

In February 1981, Ronald Reagan - the President who started us on the deregulatory path that has generated the greatest upward transfer of wealth since Congress deeded a tenth of U.S. land over to the railroad barons 140 years ago - had this to say about a trillion-dollar national debt:

I've been trying ... to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion is. The best that I could come up with is that if you had a stack of $1000 bills in your hand only four inches high you would be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of $1000-dollar bills 67 miles high.

Like much of what Reagan said, this wasn't true. If you could balance a trillion-dollar stack of $1000 bills, it would actually rise to just over 63 miles. But Reagan's speechwriter was bad at more than arithmetic. His image failed because few Americans had ever seen a $1000 bill. Calculating with the currency we are most familiar with - the $20 that ATMs spit out - the stack would have been 3150 miles high when Reagan delivered that speech. By the time he left office and was transformed into a Republican icon, the national debt had nearly tripled from the $993 billion owed when he arrived to $2.6 trillion. The twenties would have soared 8190 miles high.

Compared with the current White House occupant, however, Reagan was thrifty. Mister Bush has already added $4 trillion to the debt, 12,600 miles tacked onto the imaginary stack, putting it at 30,240 miles, with 119 days yet to go in his term. And that's before adding another trillion dollars for the bailout.

Multiply this video by 4 and maybe 5. But then again it was 1966. We must adjust for inflation.